“Well, he didn’t just drop in from the sky,” I said, “There has to be a record of him there somewhere. He told you he was a woodcarver and sold his wares in Gatlinburg. I’ll bet that if you contacted the business bureau there, they would be able to help you.”
“Well, I thought about that but there is no record of a Mr. Owl or even a woodcarving shop. They certainly sell a lot of carved objects in Gatlinburg but there is nothing in the records about a shop that is specific to woodcarving and of course there is no one that has ever heard of a Mr. Owl. He is not listed in any phone book, nor is he in any of the records of the Cherokee tribal council.” Corey responded. “I’ll keep trying, but for now, I have no idea how to find him, I’m beginning to wonder if he was all just a dream.
Hidalgo finally entered the conversation with one simple statement, “Maybe he was just a dream. Maybe he is a Shaman. Stranger things have happened.”
Hidalgo continued, “Well maybe he is just a figment of everyone’s imagination, but Penny certainly still has the owl amulet around her neck. How do we explain that?”
Corey who was obviously mystified simply shrugged his head back and forth. He had no idea what had happened even though he had crystal clear memories and even a couple of small scars from his time in Cherokee, North Carolina.
The Wedding
Many times in my life I have laid awake at night thinking about my wedding. Then as sleep overwhelmed me, I would continue dreaming about the wedding that virtually all young girls think about. Everyone I knew was there including Mom and Jed as well as Uncle Ken and Aunt June. Of particular importance to me were Grandma and Grandpa who seemed so proud of me. Hidalgo was the best man who as usual when involved with formal situations was uncomfortable but stoically doing what was expected of him. Many of the people in the audience stared at Hidalgo, not because of distrust or concern but rather because of simple curiosity. All of my friends from high school were there even though they looked a little older than I remembered them and of course many of them carried tiny babies with them. It seemed like the entire community of Camp Creek and East Greene High School, turned out for my wedding. It was so large we had to have the ceremony in Greeneville. Many people showed up and then left when they realized they could never fit into the church despite the fact that it was much larger than our high school gymnasium.
My dress was floor length white satin covered with lace and tiny white seed pearls that sparkled from the reflection of the candles all around the huge sanctuary of the church. The sanctuary would easily hold two hundred people and was packed.
The train on my dress dragged out behind me for about a foot and the veil was held in place by a silver tiara. It was covered with the tiny seed pearls like my dress. My shoes were also white satin with a one inch heel. I was sure that I would look like the princesses in my story books.
I was carrying a large bouquet with white lilies, roses, and baby’s breath tied with a white satin bow that hung almost to my knees.
Patricia and Anna, my cousins, were my bridesmaids and they wore blue dresses with the tiny seed pearls on the bodices. They carried small bouquets of lilies and daises dyed blue, and baby’s breath.
I fell into a deeper sleep for a while. In my dream I was telling Grandma all about my dream wedding. We talked about the dresses. Grandma in my dream said, “It will be hard to find dresses that are just like you have pictured, and they probably will have to be ordered. Also, they will be expensive. I think that you need to pay for the dresses and give them to your cousins. You also need to pay for the tickets for your cousins to get here. It is not fair to ask them to spend that kind of money on your wedding.”
“Have you thought how much the dresses, the minister, renting the church, paying the minister, and paying for the rehearsal dinner, and the reception after the wedding will cost?” added Grandma. I know that you and Corey have the jewels that the serpents have given to you, but do you really want to spend all that money on a wedding, asked Grandma’s voice in my head? “Do you really want to spend what you have saved? Isn’t there something else that you may need in the future?” My grandmother was always practical even in my dreams.
The following Monday morning without anyone knowing what we were doing, Corey and I drove to the county office of Valencia County and acquired a marriage license then went to the Valencia County Health Department for blood test. A week later, we showed up at a small chapel in Los Lunas with a mystified Hidalgo who had no idea what was going to happen. In the tiniest of chapels a Navy Chaplin married Corey and I while Hidalgo, dressed in work cloths comprised the entire bridal and groom assembly. He was best man, best lady, court, witness and everything thing else that relates to a fancy ceremony. During the ceremony I had a flash, remembering the overpowering vision dream I had so long ago. I had feel in love with the cracked blue eyes and all that came with them. My dream had come true.
Despite it all, we loved the very informal ceremony. It was more in our nature than a gaudy and costly wedding. We decided that we could raise children at any time. We could certainly afford raising them now, and we still had thousands of dollars stashed away in bank accounts in all our names. But for now, we were drawn to something that seemed more important. We were determined to explore the possibilities of actually being historical detectives even thought I wasn’t at all sure how it all worked. One thing I was sure of, I was part of a family.
Part 3
Rinconada de Tiempo
No power and no treasure can outweigh the extension of our knowledge.—Democritus
The Geology Lecture
Dr. Douglas began to ramble as he came to the end of the geology lecture he was delivering to sophomore and junior students. He knew that with these students he couldn’t get too technical with his lectures yet he expected real accomplishments from them when it was time for the final exam. He had exhausted the subject of stratigraphy, the science or study of rock layers. Yet having several more minutes to fill during the afternoon lecture, he allowed himself the luxury of drifting from the subject of today’s topic. It was a favorite ploy he used. By combining a personal hobby and the science that he taught he found that he could sometimes engage their interest.
“Whether by hiking, canoeing, horseback riding, or in a multitude of other ways limited only by the imagination of the traveler, realization quickly comes to the knowledgeable and observant traveler that there are mysteries evident everywhere. Incredible ambiguities exist, true puzzles.” Dr. Douglas began, and then he stopped for a moment and studied the faces of his students. They appeared to be engrossed in what he was saying yet he didn’t want to cross the academic line and wander to far from the subject at hand.
“The Southwestern United States make up a unique area that is rich in geological features and scenery. A close examination reveals hidden worlds out there, with clues in evidence of every conceivable environment, climate, flora and fauna. Just pick up any rock, it will tell you a story, if you know how to read and interpret what that rock is telling you.”
An avid field geologist and outdoorsman he couldn’t help himself, he had to tell this story as colorfully as he could, and this story had been stuck in his mind for some time.
“In Albuquerque, New Mexico there is a canoe club called The Adobe Whitewater Club. In their newsletter an article was billed as the first ever decent down the Rio Puerco river. Even by New Mexico standards the Rio Puerco is not much of a river most of the time. It originates as a tiny mountain stream well past the tiny town of Gallina in Rio Arriba County. Below Cuba, New Mexico, without prolonged rain, the Rio Puerco normally disappears into the soft alluvial soil, interspaced with slick deposits of clay in the bed. With rainwater the arroyo could theoretically be run by kayak from Cuba to its confluence with the Rio Grande River near Bernardo. And so to test this possibility, a handful of kayaks were being flushed down this unlikely river that slowly meanders south through sandstone plains that have escaped the lava flows of more recent geologic events. For miles,
in many sections of the decent down the river, climbing the banks to escape would be impossible as the river cuts a vertical channel giving the appearance of a deep crack in the earth. The mystery is why would anyone want to run it in the first place?”
A couple of hands went up in the lecture hall from students who were over achievers not realizing that they were not really being asked that question.
Dr. Douglas continued after a short pause to see who was rising their hands, “Plausible answers abound. Perhaps a desperate chance for adventure shrouded by that ideal search for knowledge, research conducted with on the job experience; maybe just plain bravado. One can only guess their motives, but I applaud those river runners, they are a rare group of individuals.”
Being a river runner himself, he liked the spin he put into the discussion which helped to generate empathy for the characters in his stories. At this point, he was having fun and apparently the students were too. Being a Colorado school and dealing with young people many of whom had run at least a few of the local rivers around Colorado, they had an idea what it was like. They could relate. Actually, whitewater rafting was one of the fastest growing industries in the state.
“About two-thirds of the way down the river, the people in the article gave up in disgust, probably the result of numerous mandatory portages, too much sun, and let’s face it; it wasn’t any fun slopping through the liquid mud. But for the knowledgeable, they were floating through a most interesting place. They were floating down a relatively new channel cut through rocks that formed a truly ancient beach. Who knows? Maybe they were at least partially drawn down the river by a fascination of descending through geologic history and arriving at the edge of a vast prehistoric sea.”
Looking carefully at several of the students he noticed that they were taking notes again. He thought to himself that they should know better than to take notes when he gets off the subject. There were no test questions on his stories. But their interest made him feel encouraged and self-satisfied.
“It would be at least another seventy million years before humans would ponder the prehistoric scenery.” He paused again. “It would be like the pages from your geology book, looking back into particular slivers of geologic time. The clues are also there in the fossil bearing rocks.”
“Just south of where we are today, seventy million years ago, there existed two entirely different worlds next to each other divided by a beach. Those worlds were in a perpetual interplay. The beach has changed a lot over the years but at one time it must have been a wonderful place to visit. Cutting the Cretaceous Age New Mexico and Colorado vertically down the middle, the eastern half of the states were covered by a vast Cretaceous seaway; a sea displaying abundant life producing rich fossil beds with much greater fossilization of life than occurs on even modern beaches. To the west of that watery world was a vast Cretaceous desert, with blowing sand stretching as far as the eye could see, reminiscent of the Sahara of today. This surely would have been an interesting if not inviting sight. In the Sahara one can travel for days on a moving ocean of blowing sand. Disorientation, dehydration, and eventually death descend upon the unprepared. In time, the sand cements itself together into sandstone revealing every grain of its formation, ancient wind directions, and climate.”
A young lady in the second row started to talk to the person next to her. Dr. Douglas met her eyes and she immediately looked down at her notebook and began writing, several students around her giggled.
“Sand, of all natural forms is most elegant, nature in the nude. A sand dune begins with any obstacle on the surface such as a stone, or bush, or anything heavy enough to resist being moved by the wind. This obstacle forms a wind shadow on its leeward side, resulting in eddies in the current of the air, exactly as a rock in a stream causes an eddy in the water. Within the eddy the wind moves with less force and velocity than the air streams on either side, creating what geologist call the surface of discontinuity. Here the wind tends to drop part of its load of sand. The sand particles, which can be visualized as bouncing, and tumbling along the surface before the wind, rather than flying through the air begin to accumulate and the pile grows higher, becoming itself a barrier to the wind, creating a greater eddy in the air currents and capturing still more sand. The formation of the sand dune is then underway.”
“Sand dunes form in amazing patterns, all dependent upon variations in wind direction. Viewed in cross section, sand dunes display a characteristic profile. On the windward side the angle of ascent is low and gradual. On the leeward side the slope is much steeper, usually about thirty-four degrees, the angle of repose of sand and most other loose materials. The steep side of the dune is called the slip face because of the slides that take place as sand is driven up the windward side and deposited on and just over the crest; when the deposit of sand on the crest becomes greater than can be supported by the sand beneath, the sand slumps. As the process is repeated through the years, the whole dune advances with the direction of the prevailing wind, until some obstacle like a mountain intervenes. At this point the dunes, prevented from advancing, pile higher. The great sand dunes at the Sand Dunes National Monument here in Colorado have dunes reaching five hundred feet high. The only higher sand dunes are in Iran, where they attain a world’s record of seven hundred feet. However, ancient deposits of sand dunes that have metamorphosed into sandstone are found that are many thousands of feet thick. In New Mexico and here in Colorado much of that sand has been stained blood red due to volcanic ash from ancient volcanic eruptions.”
“There is evidence that ancient Nile like rivers did cut through those enormous sand deposits forming unique microhabitats, not unlike the unique desert rivers of today. These ancient river deposits are often mined for the dinosaur fossils they now produce.”
“The shoreline of that ancient seaway ebbed and flowed continuously producing fossil beds with alternating layers of fossils from completely different environments. A sandy beach produced gastropod fossils. Later a forest would leave layers of coal, followed by limestone with shark’s teeth scattered throughout it. Then this vast area slowly cooked over a long period of time, perhaps with many features similar to the geysers and hot springs of Yellowstone Park of Wyoming, a similarly active zone. Imagine, an immense beach lying on top of a large geothermal area. It must have been a wonderland of underwater hot springs, a haven for biological organisms.”
“Underwater geothermal springs on this magnitude would be responsible for producing mineral deposits such as gold and silver on a grand scale. The largest mines in the world today are found in areas having been formed similarly.”
“An examination of global maps depicting volcanic sites discloses many hot spots under the earth’s crust, found independent of the major rift zones usually associated with subduction volcanoes. Hot spots, forming such places as the Hawaiian Islands and Yellowstone Park have sparked a flood of theories to explain their formation such as impact craters, mantle plumes or sub-crustal rifting. Before those volcanoes appeared what was to become New Mexico simmered for eons producing extremely complex geothermal features that would be buried by seventy million years of sedimentary and later, igneous rocks.”
Dr. Douglas glanced at his watch, and discovered that now he only had three minutes left.
“During this time in southern Colorado and New Mexico a giant rift occurred. The crust became thin as this area was pulled apart. In a line going straight down the center of Colorado and New Mexico the area dropped only to be filled in again with sediments from the surrounding mountains along with the lava from thousands of volcanoes. Ten thousand feet high, Sandia Crest which is the eastern edge of that rift zone is just east of Albuquerque and currently it is crowned with Pennsylvanian Age sea fossils. Yet at the base of the mountain is Albuquerque, itself a mile high like it is here in Boulder. Below Albuquerque, some two miles below, are the same deposits of Pennsylvanian Age sea fossils as on top of Sandia Crest. The earth has become displaced that much.”
He now
began to speed up his presentation.
“The area north of present day Albuquerque is buried by numerous volcanic mountains such as Jemez, Naciento, Mount Taylor and thousands of minor volcanic structures such as dikes and volcanic lava flows. Located on a double geological fault, the last few thousand years has created the Jemez volcano covering much of northern New Mexico and producing the largest continental caldera on the planet, just due north of present day Albuquerque.”
“Seas of lava then covered vast areas hiding world after world and, of course, all that lava piled up on top of most of the beach where all those valuable minerals and wonders were hidden. Unfortunately, after volcanoes appeared, the area produced extremely complex geothermal features that would be buried by seventy million years of sedimentary and igneous rock. Only hints of the former world can now be found.”
“Today, the Rio Puerco or Pig River cuts down though rock layers of small fragments of that beach. Erosion along the banks, and along numerous side canyons, reveals a confusing stratigraphy of fossil beds. A journey along the Rio Puerco can reveal a wealth of fossils hinting about the life that existed on that ancient seashore.”
“There are often strange and secret reasons why a river runner would venture down such a God forsaken river; the channel never taken, except by a curious few. Due to an absolute lack of scenery, whitewater, dangerous indigenous natives, too many mosquitoes or rattlesnakes; the reasons for a runner to attempt a river such as the Rio Puerco may carry a deep philosophical meaning, a scientific inquiry, or imminent stupidity.
The class laughed but nobody got up to leave despite the fact that Dr. Douglas was now past the scheduled end of the class.
The Family at Serpiente Page 21